repetitive vs. repetitious

I consider myself fairly intelligent, but I do not know when to use “repetitive” as opposed to ‘repetitious.” A friend suggested a person can be described as being “repetitious” where something like an activity would be “repetitive,” as in “repetitive stress injury.” However, these are the kinds of questions I think of, and I was wondering if someone can clarify that for me. Thank you in advance!

What do the words "refurbish," "retrace" and "retype" have in common? They are all introduced by the prefix, re-. Whether you are refurbishing something, retracing something or repeating something, you are doing something again. The differences between "repetitious" and "repetitive" are slight, but, as Ben22 stated, "repetitious" includes a more negative connotation than "repetitive." They are the same in the way that the two words share the same prefix: re-. This, by definition, simply means, "again."

My dictionary agrees with you that repetitious has a mainly negative connotation. But in some contexts so can repetitive. If you say your job or some music is repetitive, I think that's pretty negative too - it suggests a certain monotony. To me the difference seems to be mainly a matter of collocation - a long and repetitious speech but a repetitive job etc.